Originally Posted by
mugofbeer
In learning the origin of the word "Boomer" was not what l had thought or had been taught it meant, and reading what dantrutka said about it, l decided to read up on the subject. The words Boomer and Sooner really only apply to the "unassigned lands" that were opened for settlement in the 1889 land run. They have nothing to do with the rest of the state. Without going into a long historical text which can easily be found if you read beyond Wikipedia, the story is somewhat as dantrutka relates but there is a bit more to the story. We all know and accept the outrageous treatment of Native Americans. Many tribes were moved to, and assigned lands in what is now Oklahoma. Prior to the civil war, a number of tribes were assimilating and trying to participate in US government with the hopes of establishing an "Indian State of Oklahoma." During the Civil War, some tribes, specifically the Creeks and Seminoles supported the Confederacy. After the war, those tribes lost some 2 million acres of their assigned lands and this strip of today's central Oklahoma was known as The Unassigned Lands. Once the existance of these lands became public, there were those, including some Native Americans, who wanted to settle these lands. This movement became known as the "Boomer" movement. As dantrutka states, there were multiple attempts and multiple arrests of those who attempted to settle the Unassigned lands. They were never successful. In 1889, the Unassigned Lands were legally opened for settlement in the land run. David Payne and many Boomers may or may not have been racists as dantrutka claims but the lands they felt should be settled by whites was land that, at the time, was not assigned to any tribe.To me, many whites of the time were racists, not necessarily the Boomers. The whole official policy of forcefully moving Native Americans from their homelands was despicable and Native Americans were ruled against over and over again. Though many Native Americans tried to assimilate, the dream of a Native American State of Oklahoma failed, no doubt due to racism. The Unassigned Lands were taken as punishment for supporting the Confederacy so when Boomers tried to settle the lands, they weren't seeing this as taking Native American land, they were seeing the Unassigned Lands as open land that non-lndians could settle. One side note is that many Boomers were of southern African American descent because there was an organized attempt to make the unassigned lands an African American state. A number of African Americans also participated in the land run so it wasn't an exclusively white action.In summary, the words Boomer and Sooner don't appear to have any direct racist undertones. They are, however, both term for people who tried to circumvent the law at the time. The whole national policy toward Native Americans, at the time, was racist by today's standards but the lands in question weren't even officially Native American lands at that time. The OU students appear to be off base. Of course there are countless nuances to our history. I also admit this whole bit was quickly cobbled together so l may have missed some things but it was a summary from multiple sources.
Bookmarks